#169 : Saturday Ride

Go to the entrance of reverse Rooty Trail. Now look back. This is what you'll see.

Practicing my bokeh technique

Me with an arty-farty shot

Couldn't get a picture of the train tracks as there are too many people.
Got this shot of this pole instead. Btw, for all you budding photographers,
the railways will be open for the next 2 weeks. You might want to check out
this great photo op.

Ahhhhh... Saturday.... my first real trail ride after three

long weeks. But is it just me or the cyclists in the BT/Mandai

area are getting lesser? Just an observation. It's good for me

anyway. I won't be able to attain that level of Zen with lots

of other mountain bikers around.

Today I skipped the BT loop and went straight to ZH,

reverse Flowy (Sc) Trail, went to the 'mango' trees and

went reverse Rooty Trail.

I didn't bother going to Summit 1 and Summit 2 as I noticed

there are less riders today ... I'm afraid there might be more

park rangers around. I'll just do the looonnnggg loop tomorrow

with Stair Rider Deck and Fast Paolo.

Saturday Group Ride

These bikes make my bike look so ..... :-(

Group photo minus StairRider Deck, Roadie Rio and me

How do you know when there's a roadie in your MTB Group Ride?

We were not in Pulau Ubin today, so no, the answer is NOT that

he is the one who left his camelbak on the boat.

The correct answer is that he is the one who is concerned that

there is a very strong headwind inside the trail LOL.

While everybody was resting today just before entering the

Rooty Trail, Roadie Rio amazed and confused everybody saying

that we should not go to this fabled trail in Batam because

the headwind there is very strong... Everybody looked at him

and just uttered 'uhhhhhnnnnn....' then finally Ronald asked

the question that was on everybody's mind : How does

headwind affect you when you are inside the forest?

Roadie Rio then realised he's with the wrong set of people

and that I was the only one wearing lycra (but I had

my Fox Flux on!).

Anyway, it's been a while since the group came back

to BT. Also, most probably, after this weekend, everybody
would head to Pulau Ubin during the weekends leading
 to the 4hour Enduro race.

But for today, we went to BT, reverse Flowy Trail and

reverse Rooty Trail. After that was lunch. After lunch, Bal

showed us how NOT to bunnyhop to the sidewalk kerb.

Everybody then went to the BT stairs at hyper speed... and

although most of us could carry the bike up the stairs and then

cycle on forwards without any rest, everybody just stood

there ... still on their bikes ... and faced back the way where

we came .... hehehehe everybody wants to see the look

on newbie Leomar's face  while he carries his El Guapo up

the stairs LOL.... and while he was trudging up, he would

have heard lots of jeers like : "How is it?!", "You want to

go Mountain Biking, right?", "You don't want a light XC bike,

right?", "El Guapo is really nice, right?".  

If you don't know the guys I'm with, you'll swear you're going

to punch all of them when you get to the top of the stairs :-) 



Saturday Ride

Discussion on how to keep Paolo's cleats in place.

Monjie's Hobbies and AirTime Mark keep their cool even when lost.
Brother Louie doesn't know we're lost. Archie knows.

Lunch ! Finally!

NoLights Louie is the official photographer for this event.
Archie behind after getting lost in wildboar country.

Guess whose lunch this is. Clue : all the boys ate normally LOL.

GE DV1 purchased last Friday at IT Show in Suntec

Today (Saturday, Mar 12, 2011) everyone is in their good behaviour.

Friday prior to this long ride, a lot of people were asking me about

any exit points. However, nobody! nobody! even suggested to using

said exit points. So our quote for the day : 'Sige, subukan nyo!!!'

Translation : 'Go ahead and try!!!'

Quote was from Uncle Deck who dropped his usual monicker

of StairRider as there were no stairs to be biked up on this route.

As usual, Monjie's Hobbies has been branded a sadist by the

participants. By the way, we're welcoming back Archie with

his brand new all singing, all dancing Santa Cruz Blur LT which

seem to weigh a lot less than my XC bike. Also back with

us is BlinkingLights Randy who showed us his mastery of

pedalling air technique.

The day started with a bit of hazing as Ronald convinced BL Randy

that we are such masochists that we do not eat breakfast before our rides.

Believing this, BL Randy ran to BK and got himself his breakfast

which he consumed along Bukit Timah Rd on the way to 6th

Avenue where we took the breakfast that Ronald promised him

will not materialise LOL.

After breakfast, we went to the Visitor Centre via Rifle Range Rd.

BL Randy flatted even before we get to VC! ... and the two

Louies got lost(??) I'm still wondering how they did it as NoLights

Louie goes to BT every weekend!

Once all those were sorted, Sherwin bade us goodbye before

we even went up the rock garden entrance! He got paged for work.

So we went in without Sherwin.

... But even before I can get to the quarry, my phone rang and

it was Sherwin saying the problem got solved and he's asking

for directions to get to Zheng Hwa from RRR.

All these, and the ride wasn't even 30minutes old! Anyway, everything

was sorted at ZH Park. Everybody then went to the Mandai end

of T15. Monjie's Hobbies led the way to HellClimb and when

the group saw the climb... they all agreed it will be hell....

I knew this would be their reaction and so to prevent them

from waiting at the foot of the climb, I told them that we will

not do a u-turn... It was this decision that got us lost.

Thank God for GPS on handphones! We decided to create

our own trail. This was exhausting work and after that everybody

wanted to go for lunch. But I think the group is no longer 'imagining'

the route due to hunger. Sc trail is higher than Bukit Panjang (lunch stop).

If we go for lunch, we will go down, eat and then come back up

to Sc trail? Not nice! So I took out my whip and told them

that any mutiny will be dealt with harshly.

After lunch, we went to the highest point in our route and then 

went to the first stream. It was decided here that this talk of

200$ fines is too scary and so we went to do the Reverse Rooty

Trail.

We went in BT @around 9:30AM and got into Esso to clean our

bikes by 5PM+. People suffered from recurring old injuries and new ones.

Last but not least, only SR Deck and I live @Novena. All the rest

have to cycle to Bedok, Tampines or Pasir Ris!

Wanna do it again ?

Ooopsss, by the way, NL Louie had his GoPro on.

But I am not sure how those videos would turn out.

Here's a short video I took with my DV1 just for testing.

I'll be using this DV1 from now on together with my GoPro

as it is supposed to be waterproof and shockproof :-)

Update : Link to NoLights Louie's video of the group ride.

Saturday Ride

Me! who else?! Looking cool and unaffected by the climb and therefore
never said the word : 'pack'



Today's trail ride was a relaxed affair.

Any one who goes fast is automatically relegated to
sweeper duty. Hence, Roadie Rio was immediately
demoted to the back of the pack after our first regroup
at the quarry.

Once the odd fast guy was identified and dealt with

everything fell into place. Everybody was content in spinning.

Nobody dared stand up and mash their pedals for fear

of some verbal reprisal from the rest of us.

Anyway, it has started to become customary for us to

nominate a 'quote for the day'. Everyone has their favorite

but I think the winner for quote of the day is ... 'pack'...

Yes a very common word except that the guy who uttered

this was soooo tired he could not even pronounce the 'f'

sound. So you could just imagine what he was actually trying to

say hehehehe.



Also, this word has been uttered countless times today.

At the end of S-trail : pack! At the end of a root infested

climb : pack!

Edit : Pedal-less Paolo has pointed out that the
gut wrenching 'Nooooo!' did not come from him.
I had to edit the following paragraphs to reflect this
correction.

Second place for quote of the day stuck to my head
because it was addressed to me.

I was at the foot of a really root infested climb preparing

to pedal up. It came from wayyy behind me : 

"Don't go in there!!! Noooooooooo!!!"



I kid you not. I really did hear someone behind say 'Nooooooo!!!!'.

Since these are printed words I won't be able to express

the anguish and terror (yes! anguish and terror!) of what

he said. So just imagine one of your molars being extracted

by your dentist... without anesthesia. Yup, now you get the

idea.



Anyway, Pedal-less Paolo was today's cameraman

and so I'll be waiting for his post in his FB account to

see if his first foray into directing movies is any good :-)

Another edit : NoLights Louie's camera strikes
again! Hehehehe it was pointing downwards too much
and hence no video for this ride.

A few photos of who attended today's ride :

-- see 1st photo --

Sherwin was actually beside me but I think he didn't

know that NoLights Louie had included him in the frame

and so he was frowning in both photos. 

@the end of S-trail : 'pack'

Rest of the guys

 ... and as always, the person who actually took the picture

does not appear in any of the photos...

So I don't have any photos of NoLights Louie.

Nevermind! I do have this photo of some mushrooms :-)

Edit : added photo below

It's complete now! NoLights Louie is there and so is Sherwin



Saturday Ride

This is where Ronald got lost

Quote of the day : Ang tagal nung dalawa? Downhill lang yun ah?

For those who don't speak the language, it's

loosely translated as : Those two are taking too long?

That was just a downhill section?

A lot lost in the translation :-)

Anyway, today's ride started with breakfast at Sembawang Hill.

We had a new rider with us, Gavin. He did not have any problems

with the technical stuff. What 'killed' him was dehydration and
having had no biking whatsoever for the past 8 months.

Today's ride was action packed. It all started with a scolding from
Uncle Paolo. Recipient of the scolding was NoLights Louie who can't get
her GoPro Hero to work. Her camera got confiscated as a result.

Next milestone was at the climb from the first stream going
back to the 'mango' trees. Rey had a reverse endo. Paolo also
had a reverse endo. Additional points were given to Paolo
because he was still clipped-in when he did the reverse endo.


It was Gavin who finally completed the climb with additional
points awarded for holding the wheelie and not
doing the reverse endo.

Next up, Ronald got lost on the way to the 'mango' trees
and in so doing we found a new entrance to our loop.

Rey and I found some fresh wildboar tracks while we

were looking for Ronald.

Once we did the u-turn, we went in via the route that Ronald

'found'. Paolo and I did our 'good cop/bad cop' routine on Ronald

as we thought he doesn't want to share the right route with us.

It turned out that he is genuinely lost again hehehe. Good thing

I already got lost there with StairRider Deck and the surroundings

looked familiar to me.  We finally found the right entrance and

cruised to the first stream.

Paolo had 'scrambled eggs' at the downhill section leading

to the first stream. No biggie. Nothing damaged except

his confidence level. He actually kind of liked it because

now he has no problems singing 'Tragedy' by the BeeGees

in tune (with falsetto!!) hehehe.

Lunch was again at Sembawang Hill. We had our bikes washed
at a 'nearby' Esso gas station and there we got 'caught' by Mike
the Mechanic. He informed us that tomorrow
(Sunday), the PadyakPinoy group will be doing
the same route that we did.

Ronald's new stuff bought @CineLeisure

Saturday Ride

My FS bike, Sis Louie's in the background

Stream

Stream ... we were wondering if we could drink this ...

I went back to the Philippines for a much needed

vacation last week. Hence no trail rides or exercise

of any sort.

So Friday came and as usual the roll call of who's riding this

weekend came. I was thinking of giving this ride a miss,

but hey, the worse that could happen is that I push my bike.. right?

Since I know that I will need all the help I could get,

last night I was thinking which bike to bring... my HT would

be faster but harsher than my FS. My FS would be slower but

I know my spine would thank me later.

For some reason I knew that my friends would ask to go to

a 'different' trail today. Don't ask how I knew. I just felt it.

Anyway, with that in mind, I brought my FS and boy was

I glad that was the bike I chose. 

We did go to a different trail today. Last time we tried going 

there, StairRider Deck and I got lost. Today, the trail gods smiled

at us and we found the right way. Since Sherwin is already 'laspag',

we took his hints (e.g. 'we're gonna climb this on the way back????')

and decided to go all the way and have our lunch @Casuarina :-)  

Here's the video for today's ride and I think this

will set the tone for the next few rides :-)

Pulau Ubin Ride



It was cool and drizzling all day



Wooden bridge @one of the smaller trails in Ubin

This is another one of those Saturday morning rides that

got hatched on Friday afternoon.

Surprisingly, a lot of people from the western side of

Singapore was game for this ride. We arrived to have

breakfast @Changi Village at around 8:30am.

By this time, another group of people who were

supposed to go with us still have not arrived. They

finally arrived at around 9+ and told us that if we wait

for them, we might get back home later than usual and

so we could go on ahead to Ubin.

So the six of us went to Ubin. We did one round of Ketam.

Ketam is very very slippery this morning due to the rains

yesterday and the continous drizzle the whole morning.

It was a spin, slip, spin out affair. Anyway, after Ketam,

we went to the various smaller trails in Ubin so that we

could spin to our hearts' content.

Here's a short clip of what went on today.

A few more pics fom this morning

Accidental Group Ride



Nice, sunny day



Fallen trees, right @Sc, left @T15



L-R : Rey's Aleoca, my On-One, Deck's Titus

Today's ride started with me, Deck and Rey waiting for Nolights Louie and Paolo

@Velocity in Novena. But when NoLights Louie came, a whole peloton

followed her! Dee managed to convince a group of guys to

go on a group ride to T15 but they were not sure how

to get there and they also were not sure about the ins and outs

in that trail.

So, since I was going there with NoLights Louie anyway, I told

them I'd bring them there and be their guide for the day.

The trail was wet, muddy and slippery. Also there are lots

of fallen trees. Deck, Rio, Rey and Paolo managed

to catch up with us @Sc trail.

From there we went to the Mandai end of T15,

did a u-turn and rushed to Bukit Panjang

for lunch.

Everybody then rushed to the Esso station for a much

needed bike wash. After this, it became apparent that

Rey, Deck and I are in some kind of trouble

with our better halves because we managed

to get to Novena from Esso in 15 minutes....

it was then that we realised that we left

the whole group behind ... somewhere in Dunearn Road.

Here's the video clip of today's ride.

Pulau Ubin Ride

Ketam Trail Map @the entrance

It takes a lot of climbing to get here

I went to Pulau Ubin today with my original WingMan (uhhh woman,

actually), Tabs. She's rusty for not having gone on a trail ride since

her 'career ending' injury so we just went to the Blue Diamond Trails

@Ketam and also the 'fun' trails @Chek Jawa and the surrounding area.

Here's a video clip of what went on today.

Quick Trail Ride

this fallen tree has been here for ages

but the tree refuses to die!

I woke this morning with sore legs. No doubt the effect of

last night's three hills ride. I should have taken the day off to recover

but tomorrow is my son's birthday and I definitely wouldn't

be able to ride.

So even if I was feeling lethargic today, I grabbed my gear and went

for a quick ride to T15 and some parts of Bukit Timah.

Here's the video clip for today's ride.

... now I'm wondering what will I do this coming Wednesday...

my OC / DB teammates have been asking where have I been

hibernating .... maybe I should go and take a video of an OC or DB

practice ...

Saturday Ride

@Sc Trail

Some guys went to Kent Ridge, some went to ECP and some had to

work this weekend ... So this Saturday, only me and one other rider went

to T15 and Sc. We were supposed to do one fast and furious lap and

straightaway go home. But 'NoLights' Louie ran out of breath after

Rifle Range and so the "fast and the furious" became not so fast and

and not furious lap but we still managed to get to the gasoline station

by 11:30am. A far cry from last Saturday.

Anyway, I uploaded a short clip of the ride in Vimeo as I normally

see Vimeo clips having nicer quality... but after uploading, I see it having

the same quality as a YouTube upload.

Also, here's the clip in black and white. Don't ask why. It's just me testing

out some arty-farty stuff.

Saturday Trail Ride

Saturday morning @BF. As you can see there are lots of fallen trees from the past weeks of on-and-off heavy rains in SG.

This is the point where we said, ok we give up and promptly did a u-turn.

We then went to find this 'hidden' trail we call WC... we got lost hehehe but the thing is instead of finding the first stream, we ended up in T15 , just below Gangsa. So technically, we did not get lost, we just found the short cut from the entrance of WC to Gangsa LOL.

We proceeded to this other 'hidden' trail (yup! most of the trails in SG are supposed to be 'secret') we call Sc. From there, we went to the Mandai end of T15. It was not that hot but for some reason we still feel dehydrated (even if we have been drinking water regularly) so we did not venture out to try Heart Attack Climb. We did a u-turn and took the trails to Rifle Range and then home.